Paolo Bacigalupi Quotes

Killing isn't free. It takes something out of you every time you do it. You get their life; they get a piece of your soul. It's always a trade.

Short fiction seems more targeted - hand grenades of ideas, if you will. When they work, they hit, they explode, and you never forget them. Long fiction feels more like atmosphere: it's a lot smokier and less defined.

We are nature. Our every tinkering is nature, our every biological striving. We are what we are, and the world is ours. We are its gods. Your only difficulty is your unwillingness to unleash your potential fully upon it.

The problem with surviving was that you ended up with the ghosts of everyone you'd ever left behind riding on your shoulders.

Politics is ugly. Never doubt what small men will do for great power.

Food should come from the place of its origin, and stay there. It shouldn't spend its time crisscrossing the globe for the sake of profit.

Laws are a fine thing on paper, but painful when no bribery can ease their bind.

Blood is not destiny.

Knowledge is always two-edged. For every benefit, there is hazard. For every good, evil.

Never beg for mercy. Accept that you have failed. Begging is for dogs and humans.